Row after Azerbaijan frees killer
Lieutenant Ramil Safarov was given a life sentence in 2006 by a Hungarian court after he confessed to killing Lieutenant Gurgen Markarian, an Armenian, while both were in Hungary for a 2004 Nato language course. Azerbaijan and Armenia are ex-Soviet neighbours who have been locked in a long-standing feud over the mountainous territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijan’s president pardoned and freed Safarov after he was returned home last Friday, prompting Armenia to break off diplomatic ties with Hungary.
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Hide AdHungarian authorities insisted that they returned Safarov, 35, to Azerbaijan only after receiving assurances that his sentence, which included the possibility of parole after 25 years, would be enforced.